Enjoyed the cliffhanger? Ah well, here is the next chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who!
"Sir, you think you could actually try to pull?" the older man yells out at the Doctor when he notices the extra weight on the rope.
"In this position, I would think that I am." shouts the Doctor.
The creature continues to climb up the wall, but is having a hard time of it. Well, with holding onto a squirming child and having a rope with two men hanging from it, the creature is having a tough time of it.
"Daddy!" Jack screams out as he tries to wiggle out of the arm that is holding him to the creature. "Let me go you bloody bastard!"
"Oi! Jack, watch your language!" the Doctor shouts to his son. "Of course, you just have to go around repeating words that your mother says."
"Sir, you should really teach that boy of yours some manners." the older man yells as he looks down at the Doctor.
"Since when, ooommppphhhh." The Doctor isn't able to finish his sentence since the creature had decided, at that moment, to climb into a nearby window.
The older gentleman and the Doctor are pulled inside as well. From there, they are dragged along on the floor of the building as the creature is now running.
'Oh, that's not good' the Doctor thinks to himself as he sees that the creature was heading right for an open window. The Doctor knows that he only has a few options for what is about to happen next. He can either let go of the rope and watch the creature take his son away. Or he can hold on and fall out the window and quite possible cause his next regeneration. 'And Rose really likes this body.'
Bracing himself for the possibility of regeneration, the Doctor hasn't noticed that the older man has pulled out a knife and is cutting the rope. When the rope snaps, both men come to a quick stop only a few feet away from the window.
"Daddy!" Jack cries out as the creature jumps from the window.
"No. No. No. No!" The Doctor runs to the window and looks out only to see where his son is being taken. But there is no sign of the creature or his son.
"No." he whispers to himself. "Jack."
He has failed Rose. He has failed Jenny. But more importantly, he has failed as a father to Jack. He hadn't been able to keep his son safe from harm. How is he going to explain this to Rose.
"Sir?" the older man says as he reaches out and places a hand on the Doctors' shoulder. "Sir I am truly sorry. However, you have two other people that need you. Come on. Rosita is most likely taking care of them as we speak."
As the Doctor and the older man are walking down a stair case, the young black woman comes running up to them.
"You idiots. You nearly got yourselves killed, and as for you..." She stops speaking when she sees the look on the Doctor's face.
"Ah, I don't believe you have meet my assistant, Rosita."
"Oh hush up, Doctor. Sir, the two women are in the barn over yonder. Both have some injures, but the older of the two is asking for a doctor."
"Take me to them." The Doctor says, not caring if his voice sounded a bit harsh.
The two men follow Rosita down the alleyway to a nearby barn. The older gentleman pulls the Doctor to a stop before they enter the barn.
"Sir, I need to know. Who you are, and how do you know of those creatures?"
"Name, right. Forgot about that. Smith. John Smith." replies the Doctor offering his hand to the other man. He shakes hands with the man, but when he tries to pull his hand free the other man asks him another question.
"And the two ladies? Are they with you and your son as well?"
"The older woman is..." The Doctor hesitates, not sure of how to explain his relationship with Rose.
'Oh how to explain Rose's presence. In this time period it would be frowned upon if we weren't married and have a child together. Let alone two.' The Doctor lets out a sigh before answering the man's question. "The older woman is my wife; her name is Rose. The younger girl is... her sister, Jenny. The lad is my son."
"Ahhh. I see. The way you all were acting was a bit, peculiar." The older gentleman says before walking away from the Doctor and into the barn.
The Doctor enters the barn after the other man does, and is met by an anxious looking Rosita.
"Over here, sir." Rosita gestures towards the far corner of the barn.
"Thank you, Rosita."
Laying on a small mound of hay is Jenny, with a blanket over her. The Doctor makes his way over to her and kneels down so that he can touch her temple. As he skims through her mind, he finds that Jenny has a broken rib. Though, with Jenny was keeping herself unconscious, she is speeding up her Time Lady healing process.
"Doctor?"
Hearing Rose's voice, the Doctor turns to the left to Rose laying on some hay as well, but closer to a fire pit. Slowly he gets up and makes his way to be at Rose's side. He kneels down again, and takes hold of Rose's hand. Bringing it to his lips, the Doctor kisses her knuckles in relief.
"Doctor?" Rose sighs out as she begins to wake.
"It's okay. I'm here, Rose." The Doctor watches Rose's face as her eyes slowly open and focus on him. "I'm so sorry, Rose."
"What for?" she asks as she tries to sit up slowly.
"It took our son. I tried to bring him back..."
"Shhh. It's alright. You'll find him, like you always find us companions." whispers Rose as she places her free hand onto his cheek. "How's Jenny?"
"A broken rib, but other than that nothing." The Doctor nods his head towards where Jenny was lying on some hay. "How are you feeling?"
"I feel as though I've had the life knocked out of me. Other than that, I think that I'll be alright after I eat something."
"Rose Tyler. Only you would be hungry after just waking up." He gives Rose a smile, which causes her to start laughing.
"Owww. Don't make me laugh. It hurts." Rose wraps an arms around herself while wincing in pain.
"Hold on." The Doctor pulls out his sonic screwdriver and uses it to check Rose for any other possible injury. It beeps a couple of times when it passes over her torso, and the Doctors' eyebrows furrow.
"So, Doctor. Am I going to live?" Rose asks, sticking her tongue out at him in a cheeky manner.
"You'll survive. No permanent injuries. However, Rosita?"
Hearing her name being called, Rosita hurries over to the Doctor and Rose from her place on the other side of the barn. "Yes, sir?"
"Could you go and get some clothes for Rose and Jenny?"
"Certainly, sir." Rosita replies before heading out the door and into the shopping markets.
Cuddling up next to Rose, the Doctor and her wait patiently for Rosita to return and for Jenny to wake. Neither of them speak to the other, but they do hold hands and let their thumbs rub soothing circles on the skin. They stay like this for about two hours, and then they hear Jenny let out a groan.
"Dad?"
"Over here, Jenny." The Doctor replies from his place next to Rose.
Jenny slowly sits up and looks to where the Doctor and Rose are huddled together. "Dad, where is Jack?"
"Taken away by that creature. Whatever it was." The Doctor growls out in frustration.
"Don't worry, Jenny. I am sure the Doctor will find him. Come sit down over here by us." Rose motions for Jenny to come and sit by them.
Jenny slowly moves to stand up and carefully makes her way over to where Rose is. However, Jenny sees her dad stand up as she gets closer to them, and he guides Jenny into sitting down where he had been.
"I'll be back with some food. You both look like you need it." The Doctor says to his two girls.
Walking away from Rose and Jenny, the Doctor makes his way out of the barn. He makes his way down two alleyways before he uses the sonic screwdriver to call the Tardis to him. It only takes a few seconds before the grinding, whooshing sound fills the air and the Tardis comes into view. The Doctor walks towards the Tardis, keeping his eyes open for any sign of that other man and Rosita. Seeing that the coast was clear, the Doctor enters the Tardis only to have her yelling at him about losing Jack. But she takes pity on him when he tells her something that is important.
There on the jump seat is a wicker picnic basket filled with fresh Earth fruits, cheese, breads, and thermos full of hot tea. Knowing that the food is for his family, the Doctor pats one of the pillars gently as he moves towards the offering. With the basket in hand, the Doctor leaves the Tardis and makes his way back to the barn.
Upon entering the barn, the Doctor makes his way over to Rose and Jenny with the basket of food.
"Curtesy of the Tardis. I suggest you both eat so that you can gather your strength." The Doctor says to them, taking a banana from the basket.
Seeing his girls tuck into the offered food, the Doctor eats his banana before walking away.
"Where are you going?" Rose calls out to him.
"To find some answers." The Doctor replies. Walking out of the barn and looked around. 'That's funny. Where did those two go?' Glancing around, the Doctor finally spots Rosita coming from around a corner.
"Rosita. Where did the doctor go?" the Doctor asks the woman.
"He went down to investigate a house." She replies as she shuffles some clothes that she has in her arms.
"Where is that, exactly?"
"Go to the corner, turn left. Then go down the street for 5 blocks and turn right. The house is white with a green door. Hard to miss. Especially if he left the door open again. Need anything else?"
"No. Only to say thank you, Rosita. By the way, the Doctor's companion is always by his side. Don't let him tell you otherwise."
Rosita smiles at the Doctor before telling him to go and find her Doctor.
Elsewhere in the city...
"Put me down!" Jack shouts as he kicks and pulls the creature's hair. " I said. PUT. ME. DOWN!"
The creature has been carrying Jack for the past two hours, and is not fed up with the boy. But now that it is back with its master, the creature is more than happy to hand the boy over to her. So the creature drops Jack onto the ground before walking up to its master.
As Jack pulls himself up off of the ground, he lets out a scream as a hand touches his shoulder.
"Now, now. There is no need for yelling boy. My, what a handsome child you are." The woman says as she begins to inspect Jack.
"My daddy is going to find me and when he does, you will be wishing that you were never born." Jack says with a tone that he has never used before.
"My, my. Quite the spirit you have. Even for one so young. Yet your eyes look as though they belong to someone much older than yourself." The woman in red says as she looks directly into Jack's brown eyes.
Jack really can't stand having this woman hold his face so tightly with her fingers, which is forcing him to look at her. He wants to look away and thinks that the only way to get her to look away from him is to do what Gran had told him never to do. Gathering his courage, Jack spits at the woman's face.
"Argh." The woman lets go of his face and wipes the spit away from below her right eye.
Jack, seeing a way possible escape, takes the chance and runs. Before he can get even a few feet away from the woman, the Metal Men of his dreams come through the same door that Jack was going to escape from.
"Delete. Delete. Delete."
Seeing the shiny metal men from his dreams appear before him, Jack screams in fear and begins to back away from them.
On a street in the city…
The Doctor is jogging down the road, looking for the house that Rosita had told him the man was headed for. He comes to a stop when he feels a ripple of fear rip into his mind. His mind begins to search for what had sent it, when he feels a familiar presence.
"Jack." The Doctor whispers as the connection grows more powerful. However, as quickly as the connection began it begins to close to fast. The Doctor tries to send a calm, reassuring message to his son, but isn't sure Jack felt it before the connection closed. Looking around at his surroundings, the Doctor realizes that he is now standing in an alley way across from the house.
The gentleman, who is calling himself the Doctor, is standing at the corner of the iron fencing, watching the pedestrians. The man stays frozen there till it is safe for him to use his sonic screwdriver to open the door to the house. He waits for what seems like hours, but when the coast was clear, he takes his chance at opening the door. With the door open, the man is surprised to see the true Doctor standing inside.
"Hello." The Doctor says solemnly.
"How did you get in?" The man asks, trying to mask his surprise.
"Oh the front door. I'm good with doors. Would you mind my asking, but is that your sonic screwdriver?" The Doctor nods to the normal screwdriver that is in the other man's hands.
"Yes. I'd be lost without it. Now, sir, if you would be so kind as to let me through."
Letting the other man into the house, the Doctor watches the other man closely. For the life of him, the Doctor can't understand how this man can be a future him. Even if this one of his future regenerations, where was Rose and their children?
Following the other man, into a parlor room in the house, the Doctor asks the man a question.
"So who used to live here?"
"The late Reverend Albrey Fairchild. His murder is one of the many murder investigations of mine." The man replies as he begins digging through the drawers to a desk.
"What happened to him?"
"He was murdered."
"Murdered by who exactly. The Cybermen?" The Doctor asks as he continues to watch the man rifle through some paperwork.
"There were scorch marks on both sides of his head. Like some kind of electrocution. But the case that started this all was one of a Mr. Jackson Lake. However, Mr. Lake's body was never found. After that murder was when everything started. More murders. Abductions of children, stolen in the middle of the night from their beds. Some stolen in broad daylight. Like your son, sir."
As the man moves away from the desk, the Doctor notices a watch sticking out of the other man's clothes. Pushing all thoughts aside in his mind, the Doctor asks, "Could I see that watch?"
The Doctor's mind is whirling faster now with a possible idea about the other Doctor's memory loss. 'Maybe this is me, but with my memory inside a fob watch?'
"Why?" asks the man as he notices how transfixed the Doctor is by the watch he wears.
"There is a legend that a Time Lord could hide his essence into a fob watch, so that he can hide away from his enemies. May I?" The Doctor holds out a hand, palm up, hoping that the man will hand him the watch.
The man places the watch into the Doctor's waiting hand. He watches in fascination as the Doctor looks at the watch carefully. Then, all of a sudden the watch opens, yet nothing happens.
"Oops. That's not supposed to happen." The Doctor says as a spring comes flying out of the watch.
"Looks like it's more for decoration." The man says to the Doctor with a small smile on his face.
"Yeah, anyways. Alien infiltration."
The two begin to search the room some more before the Doctor pulls out his sonic screwdriver. 'Something is in that desk' he thinks to himself as his sonic buzzes. He opens a drawer to the desk, and pulls out a metal tube.
"Now here is something that doesn't belong here." He whispers to himself, wondering what the metal tube holds inside of it. Letting his curiosity to get the better of him, the Doctor decides to have a look inside of the metal tube.
Before the Doctor can open the tube up, the other man walks over to have a look see. "What are they?"
"They are info stamps. Or at least that would be my guess." He notices that the man is looking confused. The Doctor pushes one end of the tube and out came bits of information projected onto a mirror behind them. "It's compressed information. There happens to be tons of it."
Before they could get a good look at the information a door opens and out comes a single Cyberman.
"Delete!"
"Alright time to run!" shouts the Doctor as he grabs onto the other man's coat sleeve. He gives it one hearty pull that has the man following after him.
The two men run out of the room and down a hallway. However, a Cyberman steps out from a door way which causes the two men to run into another room of the house.
"The Doctor will be deleted." The Cyberman says as it follows them.
"Go up the stairs. We can't lead them outside." The Doctor shouts at the man as he pushes the man at the stairs.
Knowing that he has to protect his other version of himself, the Doctor looks around for some type of weapon to use against the approaching Cybermen. Seeing a sword decoration on the wall, the Doctor quickly pulls it down and begins to wave the sword about.
"I'm a dab hand with a cutlass. You don't want to come near me," He growls out at the approaching Cybermen. "when I've got one of these. This is your last warning. No? Okay, this is really your last warning! Okay, I give up."
Tossing the sword aside, the Doctor runs up a few steps and tries to reason with the Cybermen.
"Whatever you're doing, stuck in 1851, I can help! I mean it! I'm the only person in the world that can help you. Listen to me!" The Doctor yells out at the Cybermen as he goes up the stairs while still facing the Cybermen. "I'm the Doctor! You need me! Check your memory banks! My name is the Doctor! You leave this man alone! The Doctor is me!"
Seeing that the Cybermen can't be reasoned with, the Doctor notices a small table on the landing to the stairs. Grabbing it as fast as he can, he uses it to ram the first Cyberman in the chest. This causes a domino effect that causes the other Cybermen to fall back as the first one hits them.
"I suggest we leave now!" The Doctor says to the man.
"I agree."
The two men hurry into one of the upper rooms and leave the house via a window.
Back at the barn…
Rose is outside with Rosita, helping her keep an eye out for the Doctor and the other one. Looking up at the stars, Rose wonders what could be taking him so long to return. He has left when it was still daylight; now night has fallen and she is beginning to worry.
'Doctor where are you?' she thinks to herself as she wraps a cream colored shawl around her borrowed, calico dress. Rose's blond hair is left loose from any constraints.
"Don't worry, missus. The Doctor will come back with your husband." Rosita says in a calm and reassuring manner.
"I hope so."
Another hour passes by before something out of the corner of her eye catches her attention. Out of the darkness of the alleyway, she can see the approaching forms of the Doctor and the other man.
"Doctor!" Rose gathers up her skirts and runs towards him with a smile on her face.
The Doctor begins to run towards Rose as well, and they met halfway with Rose jumping into his arms. The Doctor swing her around in a circle before setting Rose down. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she pulls the Doctor's face to hers and kisses him passionately.
The other man walks past the reunited couple and heads into the barn. He has an investigating to do.
"Rosita. Could you bring me some dinner?" he calls out as he enters the inside of the barn.
"Rosita is out at the moment doing just that."
The man turns abruptly to see a the young, blonde woman sitting there by the fire pit in the center of the barn. She is dressed in a light brown dress with a similar shawl around her shoulders, like the woman outside is wearing. Her hair, however, is left free to rest around her face.
"Oh. Um, how are you feeling miss?" The man says, stumbling over his words.
"Fine for now. Never thought I would get to see Earth." The woman says with a grin on her face.
"Pardon?"
Just as Jenny is about to say something else, the Doctor and Rose enter the barn with their arms wrapped around the other.
"Jenny, you alright?" The Doctor asks as his face lights up at seeing that she is alright.
"I am. Were you able to find Jack. I swear I felt him for a moment earlier, but it happened so fast that I couldn't focus to send him something."
"No. I haven't found him yet. But from what our friend here told me earlier, it sounds as if a lot of children are being stolen."
"Can anything be done about it?" Rose asks the Doctor.
"Oh yes. I think that the Cybermen are behind it. And they should be very afraid when I find them."
So if any of you have noticed, I merged two chapters into one. I did this to help keep the flow and to keep things from being too dragged out. This is what happens when you do a rewrite. Hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter.
Selene